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Murdoch pay for view online content revolution begins

MARK COLVIN: Rupert Murdoch's plan to charge for online news became reality today. The Times newspaper in London placed its website behind a pay wall.

For the last month would be readers of the Times and Sunday Times have been required to register before seeing the paper's content. From today they have to get out their credit cards and pay.

With newspaper hardcopy sales falling around the world, it's a key test of whether in the new media environment people will still pay for news stories.

Ashley Hall reports.

ASHLEY HALL: With their traditional hard copy publications facing major drop-offs in circulation and advertising revenue, media companies have been forced to look at other ways to raise money.

Today London's Times newspaper has set its sights on the hip-pockets of its online readers. Danny Finkelstein is the Executive Director of the Times.

DANNY FINKELSTEIN: We believe that our journalism has a fair price. We want to charge a fair price in order that we can sustain the sort of work that we do - around the world offices, a big news operation, the sort of news operation that we want.

ASHLEY HALL: It's not the first major newspaper to try charging for online content.

In 2005 the New York Times, which is not part of the Murdoch stable, asked its online readers to pay for opinion and comment pieces. The scheme was dropped after a reader revolt.

However, specialist titles have had more success. The Financial Times, the Australian Financial Review and the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal currently charge for online content.

Rupert Murdoch says asking users to pay to use his websites is just the first step in wringing a buck out of digital news content.

RUPERT MURDOCH: We won't be using paper, we won't be using trucks. It'll come out of wifi and be picked up on these readers and we'll be able to make a very economic and attractive package.

ASHLEY HALL: He's talking about portable electronic readers, like the iPad, which some commentators believe have softened resistance to the introduction of pay for view websites.

The Murdoch-owned Australian newspaper charges users about $5 a month for its iPad app. The Australian's Director of Corporate Affairs Stephen Browning says uptake has been strong.

STEPHEN BROWNING: We sold around, just over $8,000 apps in the first month. And considering the fact that you can still get the Australian's content for free online, we were delighted with the success of it and we feel vindicates our opinion that people are more than happy to pay if the content is delivered to them when, where and how they want it.

ASHLEY HALL: So when are you going to start charging for access to the websites and how much will that be?

STEPHEN BROWNING: I can't tell you that, I'm afraid, other than to say that nothing is imminent. And as far as pricing goes, it will be very reasonable.

ASHLEY HALL: At the moment, the Times is charging a pound a month. That's about $1.80. But it's only an introductory offer and will rise to about $1.80 a day.

Stephen Browning says that shouldn't be viewed as a guide to what Murdoch websites in Australia will charge.

STEPHEN BROWNING: It's probable that we will have a different model to them. They have decided to put all of their content behind the pay wall.

We think here we'll probably do something slightly different. We look at the Wall Street journal in American which has a mix of some content remaining free and some being subscription. We think that's the kind of model that will work here for Australia. And obviously with a slightly different model then you're going to have different pricing.

ASHLEY HALL: If consumers can head to a similar website and get free content why would they pay for yours?

STEPHEN BROWNING: We absolutely recognise that there is always going to be other alternatives to what we do. We absolutely know that we have to create something that people value enough to pay for.

And that is no different to our printed newspapers every day, for our magazines and if you talk about News Corporation, our movies and our books. It's what we do. We create content and products and it is our job to make them good enough that people will value them enough to pay for.

ASHLEY HALL: Stephen Browning argues there's now a growing preparedness in the community to pay for online content to sustain a diversity of voices in the media.

But Matthew Ricketson disagrees. He's the Journalism Professor at the University of Canberra and a former media editor of the Age newspaper.

MATTHEW RICKETSON: If can't get their Times of London, they'll get their information and news and entertainment from somewhere else. I think that's the short, brutal truth.

ASHLEY HALL: Indeed, today's main story on the Times website is an interview with the British student who was once married to the woman at the centre of the Russian spy ring uncovered this week in the US.

A story that might be worth paying for. Problem is, all of the Times website's major rivals are carrying the same story for free.

MATTHEW RICKETSON: I think maybe what they're trying to do is re-educate some of their existing readers and online viewers that if they take up a subscription package online or if they extend a subscription package to the one they already have in print, then that might continue and so there's an attempt to kind of lock in your existing loyal readership and perhaps extend it.

ASHLEY HALL: How much attention will other media operators be paying to these pioneers to see how it's going to work?

MATTHEW RICKETSON: A massive amount of attention.

ASHLEY HALL: Australia's second biggest newspaper publisher Fairfax Media declined to contribute to this story. The company says pay models for its websites are still a work in progress.

And so, it seems, is the Times website's pay system. Some would-be subscribers say that repeated attempts to subscribe to the service today have failed.